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The UK is testing new roads that are made out of recycled plastic

The UK is testing new roads that are made out of recycled plastic

In the years since we first started to make roads, they haven’t changed much, they are still made out of asphalt, which is expensive to do, produces a lot of waste, and the maintenance of these roads continues the cost and the waste.

This week the UK entrepreneur and engineer Toby McCartney revealed his plan to change this, which involves using recycled roads to build durable and less wasteful asphalt with the use of discarded plastic.

And on top of that, according to MacRebur (McCartney’s company that will make the product), this new plastic-based road asphalt will be 60 percent tougher than standard asphalt, meaning that it might also reduce the amount of potholes on the road, thus further reducing maintenance as well as the cost to drivers.

They also said that they would be able to modify this surface for specific environments.

This would not only reduce the amount of plastic that we send to landfill, but it will also reduce the cost and waste associated with our current way of laying roads, and considering how many roads there are in the UK (around 29,145 miles of just main roads), this could be huge if rolled out.

And that is looking quite possible as the scheme has already won the approval of the founder of Virgin, Sir Richard Branson as well as from two local governments to start using this product to build their roads.

He also plans to expand this to other countries in the future. We will be sure to update you as this technology develops.

In the meantime, you can check out the video below for an overview of the technology. You can also find out more about MacRebur at the source link below that.